Water is the most abundant compound in the human body, making up from 50% to 80% of the human body. Thus, water is essential for life. Without water, a person will die of dehydration within a few days. Thus, clean drinking water is a valuable commodity. Moreover, as the world's population has grown from about 2.5 billion in the early 20th century to around 7 billion today (U.S. Census Bureau, International Database), sources of clean drinking water have become even more valuable. As the world's population continues to grow, the need for water will only increase. Thus, water has been called the new oil, a resource long squandered, increasingly in demand and hence more expensive, and soon to be overwhelmed by unquenchable demand.
While a little more than 70% of the Earth's surface is covered by water, much of it is undrinkable (The Hydrologic Cycle, United States Geological Survey Pamphlet, U.S. Department of the Interior, 1984). In fact, 97% of all water on the planet is found in the oceans and has a salt content of greater than 30,000 milligrams per liter (mg/L) (Gleick, P.H. (2000), The World's Water 2000-2001, the biennial report on freshwater resources, Island Press, Washington, D.C., USA.). Techniques, such as reverse-osmosis, do exist for removing salt and other minerals from sea water (desalination) rendering it drinkable. However, such techniques are complicated, producing large volumes of waste water per volume of drinkable water, and in addition, are energy-intensive and expensive. Indeed, one study concluded that you would need to lift water by 2000 m, or transport it over more than 1600 km (approximately 1000 miles) to get transport costs equal to the desalination costs (Zhou, Y., Tol, R.S.J., Evaluating the costs of desalination and water, (Working paper), December, 2004.) Thus for much of the world, the seas are not a viable option for obtaining water.
Of the about 3% of water that is not salty, about 2% is frozen at the poles or in glaciers, leaving about 1% of the water on the Earth available for use (Gleick, P. H., 1996: Water resources. In Encyclopedia of Climate and Weather, ed. by S. H. Schneider, Oxford University Press, New York, vol. 2, pp. 817-823). This water is divided amongst underground aquifers, lakes, rivers, reservoirs and or course, rain. While these are useful sources of water, overuse and political aims have led to aquifers falling, reservoirs drying up and rivers no longer flowing to the sea. In fact, some have predicted that wars will soon be fought over access to water, just as wars over oil played a major role in 20th century history (Solomon, Steven, Water: The Epic Struggle for Wealth, Power and Civilization, New York, HarperCollins Publishers, 2010). Moreover, climate change threatens to make these problems worse.
In addition to the increasing need for sources of fresh drinking water, with increasing interest in healthier lifestyles has come increasing consumer demand for pure drinking water. This is evidenced by the growth in the bottled water business. Thirty years ago, the bottled water industry barely existed. In 2007, Americans spent approximately $16 billion on bottled water (Fast Company, Issue 117, July, 2007), and industry sales are growing at about 8% annually (King, Mike, Bottled Water-Global Industry Guide- New Research Report on Companies and Markets, July, 2008). Additionally, over the last decade, specialty waters, such as vitamin water, were one of the fastest growing health tends. Clearly then, consumers are willing to pay for water having unique, desirable characteristics.
As previously noted, approximately 70% of the planets fresh water is frozen in ice caps or glaciers. Thus these ice caps and glaciers represent a potential source of fresh water. Furthermore, because of the process by which ice caps and glaciers form, and because of their age, water stored in ice caps and glaciers was frozen in place so long ago that it has unique properties not present in surface water. Inland ice and glaciers are formed by yearly snowfall. Snowfall accumulates and compresses in ice shelves over the course of many years to depths reaching over 4,000 meters in some areas. As the ice layers are compressed, and in the course of thousands of years, the ice moves towards ice rims and glaciers or other terminal points of the ice shelves. Glacial ice advances then retreats from year to year depending upon the climate around the glacier and typical snow accumulation. Glacier movements and shape shifting occur over very long periods of time (i.e., hundreds to thousands of years), but within historic memory, such transformations in fewer than 100 years are not known. Thus, these frozen bodies of water have existed, as mentioned above, for thousands upon thousands of years. In the case of the Antarctic ice sheet, it has an age of over 40 million years.
The use of inland ice as a source of a drinking water resource has been appreciated for years and, in fact, there are several companies that sell water as originating from glaciers. However, known methods have been disadvantageous, because some of the natural purity of the ice has been lost in the preparation of the ice as drinking water, after ice has been taken out from its natural occurrence, such as an iceberg. It has been necessary to melt the ice and then bottle or pack the water in containers permitting transport and distribution of the water to consumers.
In addition to being sources of fresh water, ice caps and glaciers have heretofore unappreciated characteristics. Because such ice was formed far away in time and geography from modern day pollutants, it is extremely pure with regard to such pollutants. Additionally, because methods exist for obtaining and dating ice from various depths, it is possible to obtain water from a specific time period. Consumers may readily appreciate being able to obtain water in the form it existed at the time of Shakespeare, King Arthur, or Jesus, for example.
Other unappreciated advantages can be obtained as well. For example, in recent years, groundbreaking research has yielded evidence of the existence of extraterrestrial components within terrestrial ice, theorized to have been deposited by amino acid-bearing comets that collided with Earth approximately four billion years ago. In 2004, a collection of high speed dust samples taken from the comet Wild-2 by the NASA Stardust probe revealed the existence of glycine, a basic component of proteins, within the comet. The existence of these components in the Wild-2 comet provides much of the basis for the theory that the building blocks for life on Earth were delivered by meteorite and comet impacts. These components have also been found on Earth, preserved in glacial ice in a similar manner as to how they are preserved in frozen comets. It is known that amino acids are crucial elements of life as they form the basis of proteins, which are linear chains of amino acids. Accordingly, credible evidence exists to state a theory that the early origins of life on Earth are present in current polar and non-polar ice sheets.
While the use of inland ice as a source of water has been proposed, current systems for obtaining and distributing water fail to provide such water in its purest form. Moreover, current distribution systems are not on-demand. That is, the water is first bottled at a source, usually a bottling plant, after which it is shipped to warehouses and then on to the point of final sale. Thus, volumes of water are shipped based on estimates of sales with the result that too much, or too little, water might be shipped. Thus water may sit for long periods of time prior to consumption, leading to leaching of container components and off tastes. Moreover, all of the water supplied at the bottling plant is the same, meaning that the customer has no ability to obtain water having a desired, special characteristic. Thus, currently there are no methods of obtaining and distributing inland ice water in its pure form. Moreover, no method currently exists for economically obtaining distributing inland ice water in an on-demand fashion, based on need and desirability of specific characteristics. The present invention solves these heretofore unmet needs.
Currently, many methods exist for the purification and desalination of water in order to produce potable and commercially appealing drinking products, such as reverse-osmosis. Many of these processes suffer from the drawbacks of high production costs, resulting carbon emissions from the facilities in which they take place, and a significant level of waste water per volume of resulting potable water. As the demand for clean water increases, these methods have also been criticized for the strain they put on natural aquifers. In coastal regions with groundwater aquifers underlain by saline layers, concerns of saltwater encroachment exist where the over-burdening of freshwater aquifers creates a pressure differential that allows heavy concentrations of salt water to infiltrate the drinking supply.
Purification and desalination of water to remove undesired contents such as harmful bacteria and heavy metals, typically is an energy-intensive process. In addition to the raw energy consumption required to produce clean water, it is estimated that at least twice the amount water is used in the production process than is actually bottled. In other words, one liter of bottled water represents three liters of water consumed. It has also been estimated that tens of millions of barrels of oil were required to generate the energy needed to produce the volume of bottled water consumed in the United States in 2007.
In addition to the numerous environmental concerns surrounding the current methods of procuring potable water, various health concerns are present as well. Concerns over undesirable foreign contents in municipal water supplies have forced many consumers to balance the aforementioned environmental risks with the perhaps more personal and immediate concerns posed by these health risks. Contaminants such as heavy metals, including transition metals, metalloids, lanthanoids, and actinides (e.g. Mercury, Lead, Chromium, etc.), PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls), and pesticides frequently occur in water supplies of even advanced regions. The primary causes of these contamination concerns, aging water distribution infrastructure and pollution, are significant public works concerns that will require significant time and cost to update and repair.
Many water sources are tainted as a result of their latitudes and relative proximity to industrialized nation's carbon emissions, e.g. mercury from coal and petroleum fired power plants. Accordingly, in a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the selected water source is located in a region that is generally unaffected by pollution from industrialized nations. Glacial ice situated in regions between 15 and 60 degrees south latitude, such as Chilean glaciers, provides desirable sources of ice and water for use in the present invention. Additionally, many natural sources of water contain harmful microorganisms, such as Guardia, which often require energy intensive methods such as boiling or the addition of otherwise undesirable substances such as chlorine to eliminate. These concerns are prevalent even in relatively unpolluted areas as such microorganisms frequently enter the water supply from a wide range of their mammalian hosts. Giardia in particular, which is estimated to infect over 2.5 million people annually, typically results in severe gastrointestinal symptoms causing weight loss, malaise, and fatigue.
In recent years, groundbreaking research has yielded evidence of the existence of microorganisms within terrestrial ice. These microorganisms are theorized to have originated with amino acid-bearing comets that collided with Earth approximately four billion years ago and may have assembled into early proteins and DNA. In 2004, a collection of high speed dust samples taken from the comet Wild-2 by the NASA Stardust probe revealed the existence of glycine, a basic component of proteins, within the comet. The existence of these components in the Wild-2 comet provides much of the basis for the theory that the building blocks for life on Earth were delivered by meteorite and comet impacts. These components have also been found on Earth, preserved in glacial ice in a similar manner as to how they are preserved in frozen comets. It is known that amino acids are crucial elements of life as they form the basis of proteins, which are linear chains of amino acids. Accordingly, credible evidence exists to state a theory that the early origins of life on Earth are present in current polar and non-polar ice sheets.
While the details of the potential health benefits of these amino acids have yet to be evaluated, there exists a viable market for unadulterated drinking water which could reasonably be calculated to contain glycine and primordial building blocks of life. In addition to the commercially appealing aspects of consuming the origins of life itself, glycine is known to produce a sweet taste for humans.
As the world's population continues to increase, so does the demand for fresh water that is safe for consumption and the like. Despite many advances in water purification technology, many areas of the world are currently affected and will continue to be affected by a lack of this fundamental natural resource. Currently, many methods, such as reverse-osmosis, exist for the purification and desalination of water in order to produce potable and commercially appealing drinking products. Many of these processes suffer from the drawbacks of high production costs, resulting carbon emissions from the facilities in which they take place, and a significant level of waste water per volume of resulting potable water. As the demand for clean water increases, some methods have also been criticized for the strain they put on natural aquifers. In coastal regions with groundwater aquifers underlain by saline layers, concerns of saltwater encroachment exist where the over-burdening of freshwater aquifers creates a pressure differential that allows heavy concentrations of salt water to infiltrate the drinking supply.
Indeed, many areas in need of a reliable water supply do not have the availability of the resource itself to even reap the benefits of purification technologies. At the same time, however, a few specific regions of the Earth have abundant supplies of fresh, clean, and safe water which offer the potential to alleviate demands for water by utilizing the appropriate means for conveyance.
Devices and methods for transporting large volumes of water to distant regions of the Earth have proved costly and inefficient. For example, filtration, purification, and bottling of water for transportation and consumption have become a subject of scrutiny in recent years. In addition to the raw energy consumption required to produce clean water, it is estimated that at least twice the amount water is used in the production process than is actually bottled. In other words, one liter of bottled water may represent as much as three liters of water consumed. It has also been estimated that tens of millions of barrels of oil were required to generate the energy needed to produce the volume of bottled water consumed in the United States in 2007. Furthermore, the production and transportation costs of these methods are proving to be more and more taxing upon our planet's already strained natural resources.
Recent research has also revealed that one common method for transporting water and drinking liquids, containment via plastic bottles, poses a variety of health and environmental risks. It is estimated that approximately 70 million plastic bottles of water are consumed daily in the United States alone. In addition to the obvious strain that this puts on landfills and natural resources, many of these bottles may also contain Bisphenol (“BPA”) which may pose health risks to humans. Even bottles that do not contain BPA pose the risk of leaching other chemicals into the contained water or fluid. While bottled water is not without its benefits, it is often desirable to reduce the amount of bottles used or the duration which water or liquid is stored in the bottles.
Accordingly, a long felt but unsolved need exists for a method and system that can be economically employed to contain and convey pure and safe drinking water from various regions of the Earth to those having a need or demand for the same. Additionally, a long felt but unsolved need exists for a method and system that can be economically employed to procure waters having some of the above reference positive attributes without including undesired components. A long felt and unmet need further exists with respect to systems and methods for economically conveying, transporting, trading and/or selling rights and title to the world's fresh waters.